KILLER NUN

KILLER NUN

(a.k.a. SUOR OMICIDI)

Sister Gertrude (Anita Ekberg, LA DOLCE VITA) oversees white-clad nuns working in a hospice for the elderly. She enjoys respect from her nuns due to her firm hand with them, a good rapport with her patients and a close working relationship with Dr Poirret (Massimo Serato).

But it quickly becomes apparent that Gertrude is still suffering the after-effects of a prior illness and needs medication to help numb the pains in her head.

Sexy young nun Mathieu (Paola Morra, BEHIND CONVENT WALLS) shares a room with Gertrude and is privy to her odd ways, as is young patient Peter (Lou Castel) - constantly trying to get into Mathieu's knickers - who openly mocks the Sister's odd ways. But even they have no idea how fucked up she really is - Poirret's the first to realise just how deranged Gertrude has become, when he catches her trying to kill an ailing patient.

Gertrude excuses her behaviour by complaining of severe headaches and insisting that Poirret give her some morphine to cope with the strain. He refuses, diagnosing Gertrude's condition as being psychosomatic. Even the Mother Superior (Alida Valli, EYES WITHOUT A FACE; SUSPIRIA), who Gertrude rings for some form of comfort, refuses to sympathise with her condition.

But when Gertrude witnesses a patient die one night her madness becomes full-blown. She steals the dead lady's diamond ring and takes off to town the following day where she pawns it, smokes cigarettes, drinks cognac in a bar and even has sex with a random stranger.

Back in her living quarters at the hospice, Gertrude keeps souvenirs of her naughty afternoon out in her bedside drawer - just waiting to be discovered by Mathieu, of course - and starts to increase her intake of self-administered morphine. The only trouble with acquiring the drug is the inquisitive Poirret ... so Gertrude persuades the hospice governor to replace him.

Enter handsome young replacement doctor Patrick (Joe Dallesandro, BLOOD FOR DRACULA; THE GARDENER) who proves to be an instant hit with the patients but will prove to be a bane for Gertrude when he, along with Mathieu and nosy Peter, become increasingly suspicious of her drug abuse and a series of bloody murders committed by a nun - that Gertrude believes she may have witnessed while in morphine-fuelled hazes.

KILLER NUN is an extremely attractively shot film, from its stylish symmetrical gathering of a host of nuns beneath the opening credits to the lingering shots concentrating on Morra's gorgeous naked flesh. The murder scenes are filmed in a deliberately stilted fashion, all jump-edits and soft-focus to illustrate Gertrude's confused perspective of events. The results - aided by a terrific score - are decidedly psychedelic and very reminiscent of the better giallos.

The cast is a Eurosploitation fan's dream - and they don't disappoint. Dallesandro offers his usual arrogant Brooklyn drawl while females melt over him (there's a great blasphemous scene between him and Morra towards the end, that was famously misread when it featured on the UK pre-cert video cover). Morra is as sultry and suggestive here as she was in BEHIND CONVENT WALLS and Valli, though criminally underused, gets to shine during what precious little screen time she has.

But this is Ekberg's film and she dominates each scene. Director Giulio Berruti delights in close-ups of Ekberg's piercing blue eyes, and she makes great use of them whether frowning in repressed pain or flirting outrageously with strangers in a bar. It's a deep performance, one that is arguably better than the film as a whole deserves. The only downside to her truly enjoyable character piece is that her voice (her role was recorded in English) was dubbed post-production by another actress.

Thematically, the film plays well as a meditation on drug addiction and society's refusal to recognise it as an illness. This is a strong tactic by Berruti, as it manages to illicit some sympathy towards Gertrude. Unfortunately the "whodunit" side of the film is not handled as cannily.

All in all, KILLER NUN is an entertaining jaunt into nunsploitation territory that remains a well-acted, well-shot and occasionally jaw-dropping example of the genre. It throws gore and nudity at the viewer at regular intervals, while succeeding in appealing on a more conventionally aesthetic level too.

Shameless proudly present the film on uncut on UK DVD for the first time.

The film is presented in it's original 1.85: ratio and has been 16x9 enhanced. Colours are a little muted but the overall effect is a clean, relatively grain-free transfer that sits on a par with the Blue Underground R1 alternative.

The English mono soundtrack does its job well too. A couple of restored scenes are in Italian audio with optional English subtitles.

Static menus include a scene-selection menu that allows access to the film via 12 chapters.

The main extra on offer is a new 6-minute interview with Ekberg. Conducted in English in 2006, this sees the screen legend discussing her post-LA DOLCE VITA career, her reasons behind accepting the KILLER NUN role (she was attracted to the based-on-a-true-story aspect) and her disdain for the eventual final cut of the film with her voice recorded over. The interview is interspersed with non-anamorphic clips from the film. The final impression from this interview is that Ekberg really invested in the character and had a great time with the role.

A 3-minute trailer is pretty grainy but very watchable nevertheless.

We also get trailers for other Shameless attractions, which on this occasion include THE NEW YORK RIPPER, THE BLACK CAT, TORSO, VENUS IN FURS, BABA YAGA and PHANTOM OF DEATH.

I'll admit that when I first heard of this new company called Shameless, I was cynical and expected another Vipco. This release further proves that Shameless are a beacon of hope for genre fans, offering a great cult film uncut, in a really nice anamorphic transfer and with an (albeit short) exclusive extra feature. Sterling stuff.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Shameless
Region All - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
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